School change: College, the tail waging the dog
I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said, “all great ideas began as blasphemy.” Well, here’s some blasphemy for you, when it comes to school change our universities are the tail wagging the dog. We spend at the least 80% of our time in K-12 education preparing kids for a four-year liberal arts degree. Well I say enough is enough!
It’s time for those of us in K-12 education to ignore the universities. Even better, tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine! We need to focus on what’s best for our kids and, in spite of the rhetoric from politicians, going to a four-year college is not best for all kids.
Yet we continue to kowtow to universities as they tell us what we must teach, how we must teach it, and even how we must organize to teach it. Our universities are as out of date as our K-12 schools, and in many ways, the cause of our obsolescence.
Don’t get me wrong a university degree is extremely important for about 25% of our population. And most universities do a wonderful job with some of their students. But it has become nothing more than a sorting process where we prepare every student to go to colleges and then they systematically weed out all but the best performers.
That used to be an appropriate and effective because those students who are simply sloughed off of the system could still go out and find good, high-paying jobs. That’s no longer the case. Which means we can no longer allow our universities the luxury of running a process of survival of the fittest.
Real school change will focus on the needs of our students not the wishes of our universities. – Steve Wyckoff
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just wanted to add my 5 cents… i’m currently teaching k-12 equivalent here in spain, but have been working in high-scholl for over 10 years. i have had the chance the speak with college students about they learning experience for several hours too. my experience tells me primary schools are much more flexible than high schools and far more that colleges. just a few months ago i heard some last term pedagogy students explain how their most exciting learing experience at the university was related to an exercise with a camcorder in a classroom… and they were talking about it as something real cutting-edge!
Exactly! We have so lowered the expectations of our students that anything we do that is remotely engaging is seen as cutting edge by her students. I think the example that you give is a perfect example of this. I guess it is somewhat comforting to know that the rest of the world’s educational systems are as screwed up as ours.
I agree as well regarding the tail wagging the dog. My next question is why does it have to be either or when it comes to college or something else. There is no doubt that generally speaking, when a person adds a college degree and beyond, their income goes up. This isn’t true 100% of the time, and there are certainly exceptions, but Labor Dept. stats do show this trend.
Why can’t we in K-12 do a much better job of engaging students in meaningful work, that is relevant and important to them? Then let them decide, with our guidance, what the appropriate education is for them. I very well may be a university education, eventually.
That to me would be significantly move us forward in real school reform.
I agree. What I should have also stated in the original post is that much of the “Gen Ed” curriculum we make kids take in college is a worthless as much of the core curriculum in high school.
If we focused on what’s relevant for the student at ALL levels of education, instead of trying to make what we require more relevant the students would benefit greatly.